Stocking

[Michaelsf90]

Pretty much a beginner. Started off with a 25L which was for my son. Soon realised this way too small. After two months once the tank had cycled i upgraded to a 125L fluval Roma. I have two questions.

One is regard to stocking. At the minute I have ten danios, 3 zebras, 3 leopard and 4 golden. Their is 4 peppered Corey's and 2 zebra nerites. The temperature is 22 Celsius, 72 Fahrenheit as the research i did told me thats around the ideal temperature for the fish I have. I want to be able to add six odessa barbs? Will my tank be ok with that or overstocked?

The other issue at the minute is algae. Every two to three days I'm cleaning the glass. I've reduced the length of time the led is on. It's getting better but I thought the snails would be mopping all the algae up?

 

[CryptFan]

No problem, but I would ads 2-4 more peppered corries, and the Odessa barbs.

 

[Byron]

The three danios are all the same species, Brachydanio rerio. The ‘leopard danio’ is a spotted morph of B. rerio which was described as Brachydanio frankei (Meinken, 1963), but is now generally referred to as B. rerio var. frankei. Its origin was considered something of a mystery for a number of decades, with the most accepted theory being that it was produced via selective breeding, but it is now known to be a spontaneous mutation of the striped form which also occurs in the wild (Spence et al., 2008). There do exist several ornamental strains, however, including a xanthistic ‘golden’ form and a long-finned variety. [cited from SF] These varieties being the same natural species will shoal together.

The Odessa Barbs (Pethia padamya) are very active swimmers, like the danios, so that is a good match (sedate fish and active fish do not go together). Both also do well in cooler temperatures (as here). If this tank is 36 inches (90 cm) in length, not a problem, but if less the Odessa Barbs may not be the best idea. If acquired, a group of six is minimum, I would go with seven for no reason other than small groups of even numbers tend to be noticeable as such.

Increase the group of cories regardless of the Odessa. The more the better for cories, and my suggestion here would be a group of 9-12, same species or mixed doesn't matter but try to have a few of each species if you can.

The other issue at the minute is algae. Every two to three days I'm cleaning the glass. I've reduced the length of time the led is on. It's getting better but I thought the snails would be mopping all the algae up?

This is due to the light most likely. Do you have live plants? Floating plants will help this, and also be welcomed by the fish (most forest fish prefer less light overhead). Reducing the photoperiod can help too, and using a timer is best as this makes it the same period each 24 hours which is beneficial to fish (and plants if present).

Last, but not least...welcome to TFF.

 

[seangee]

This is due to the light most likely. Do you have live plants? Floating plants will help this, and also be welcomed by the fish (most forest fish prefer less light overhead). Reducing the photoperiod can help too, and using a timer is best as this makes it the same period each 24 hours which is beneficial to fish (and plants if present).

Nerites won't solve an algae problem. They will be perfectly happy if there is plenty but it won't look good. Once you fix the underlying cause the problem will go. I reduce the light period until I only have to clean the glass once a week and then reduce it by another 1/2 hour per day. I also use floating plants to reduce the light intensity - these also help by competing with the algae for nutrients.

 

[Colin_T]

Just add some floating plants like water sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta) to help with the algae problem.